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James Bond’s Rolex Submariner

The watch worn by the most famous secret agent, not only to tell the time but also as a brass knuckle to stamp "Rolex" on the face of his enemies. When they first came on the market, they cost only $70. This is the story of the first Submariners, how Rolex made its fame and why Ian Fleming put them on 007's wrist
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James Bond’s Rolex Submariner

There was a time when Rolex manufactured watches dedicated to the professional and sports field, with quite affordable prices compared to the exorbitant tags of the current era, mainly aimed at the luxury fashion market.

Rolex was born as a commercial brand in 1908, created by Hans Wilsdorf and his brother-in-law Alfred Davis, after spending 3 years building watches for third parties in London. Although they had opened an office in Switzerland, the company did not move to Geneva until 1919.

During the first half of the 20th century, Rolex built the reputation of its brand one step at a time, winning the “A” certificate of accuracy in 1914 and sponsoring some relevant events… until the Submariner model was featured in the James Bond films.

How Rolex became famous

In 1927 swimmer Mercedes Gleitze’s attempted her first crossing of the English Channel. The feat was successfully completed but went completely unnoticed, without sufficient follow-up to confirm the achievement.

To gain credibility, the swimmer had to make a new crossing. Hans Wilsdorf, knowing the press interest in the matter, offered Mercedes one of the first Rolex Oyster thinking it could be a good promotion. Gleitze put the watch on when she jumped into the sea for the second time.

This second attempt was unsuccessful as a result of the harsh conditions, with the water much colder than the first time. Still, it served to lend credibility to the first crossing because Gleitze, who managed to endure 10 hours swimming in icy waters, was hoisted semi-conscious like a heroine.

The press published the feat echoing the small Rolex watch that Mercedes wore on her wrist. The piece continued to function flawlessly without a single drop of sea having entered the casing.

Rolex Oyster Mercedes Gleitze
Mercedes Gleitze and re-issue of the Rolex Oyster presented to her by Wilsdorf.

Another notable episode in which Rolex was involved was the events that inspired the film “The Great Escape” by Steve McQueen. During World War II, captured British officers who were interned in concentration camps had all their valuables confiscated, including watches.

Upon learning of this, Wilsdorf decided to send a Rolex to every British prisoner who wrote him a letter giving his word to pay him upon release when the war ended. As Switzerland remained neutral during the conflict, the Germans allowed it. Some 3,000 watches were sent to Oflag camp VII in Bavaria.

The gesture served for Rolex to open up a market in the USA in the most unexpected way. Along with the British, the watches also gained fame among American officers who had been interned in the same camps.

Rolex Oyster 3525
Steve McQueen during the filming of “The Great Escape” and the Oyster 3525 that was used to time the escape.

One of the orders, placed in 1943 by Corporal James Nutting, a prisoner in the Stalag Luft III camp, surprised Wilsdorf. While the officers, theoretically wealthier, ordered the affordable “Speed King”, Nutting had ordered the most expensive chronometer in the entire Rolex catalog, an “Oyster 3525 Chronograph”.

According to Nutting himself, this chronometer was used to monitor how long it took the german guards to pass through the area where the “Harry” tunnel was located, through which 76 prisoners managed to escape. After the war, Rolex’s fame was further enhanced when two films were made about these escapes.

In 1953, Tenzing Norgay and other members of the Hillary expedition were wearing Rolex when they first crowned Mount Everest.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Rolex was in its “tool era (1954-1971)”. It marketed timepieces for the sports and professional field, offering robust, durable watches, able to withstand water and extreme conditions.

The first Rolex Submariner

The Rolex Submariner was presented for the first time at the Basel Fair in 1954, after starting its production a year earlier. Its release implied a small revolution in the world of diving and horology. “Subs” were one of the first modern diving watches, able to work without any problem submerged in water, guaranteeing waterproofness to a depth of 100 meters (330ft).

Rolex had been overtaken by Blancpain a year earlier with a similar watch, the mythical Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Mil-Spec, which was produced exclusively for the military for the next 3 years. It wasn’t available in the civil market.

The Submariners were built like a tank in stainless steel, with plexiglass crystal. It was a diver and its movement Caliber A260 was automatic. It did not require winding.

Rolex Submariner 6204
Rolex Submariner 6204, the first Rolex Submariner in history, launched in 1954.

The Submariner was the first watch available to the general public that came with a rotary bezel with time markers (the first was the military Fifty Fathoms but initially was not sold in stores). By rotating the bezel around the dial, the dive time could be timed without the need to set the watch hands to 12 o’clock.

The dial and hands were painted with a luminescent pigment, produced with radioactive radium, visible in the dark. The dial scale was gold or silver color with shiny black background. Over time, some dials take on a layer of patina and the markers on these antique watches appear gold, even though they were originally white.

Rolex Submariner 5512
Rolex Submariner 5512.

The first two Submariners that saw the light in 1954, the 6204 and 6205, became a sales success despite still being in a somewhat experimental phase.

Rolex was still polishing details. The visibility of the dials was not quite optimal underwater and the manufacturer wanted to offer even more resistant cases.

In 1955, the Caliber A260 movement was replaced by the Caliber 1030 in the new models 6536 and 6538. In the early 1960s, the crown gained pyramid-shaped protectors with the 5512 model. The dials began to abandon the gold tones to be white/silver.

Rolex Submariner 5513
Rolex Submariner 5513, one of the most desirable models of the entire series. For collecting or investing in horology, the most prized Submariners are all models released in the “tool era” of Rolex, between 1954 and 1971. Just as in numismatics it is preferable that the coins retain the patina acquired over the years, in antique watches it is valued that they have not been restored and are well preserved. When any Rolex is sent to the manufacturer for service, it is returned new but loses value.

In 1964 the Sub crown guard was redesigned with a more rounded shape. In 1965, the dial hour markers featured silvered metal edges, as seen on the Submariner 5513.

Since then, the basic design of the Submariners has remained virtually unchanged to this day, except for minor aesthetic tweaks. Inscriptions on the dial, improvements in the movement or special editions using gold for the fashion market.

Rolex MilSub 5517
In 1971 Rolex Submariner 5513 and the 5517 were modified for a British Department of Defense order, becoming the MilSub, one of the holy grails of horology.

A major change occured around 1969 when an additional Submariner model with date indicator was produced. From this moment on Rolex began to become a fashion brand offering tacky versions of all its basic models with gold and bright colors.

This strategy contributed to Rolex successfully weathering the quartz crisis during the 1970s, while many of its competitors were forced to close their shops. It also contributed to Rolex’s inflated prices, especially from 1980 onwards.

The price of a Submariner in 1955 could vary in stores depending on the offer made by each shop. They could be found for about $70 at the time, which at the current exchange rate would be about $820, far from the present exorbitant prices.

In 2010 a Submariner model 5510 purchased in 1958 for $70 was auctioned on eBay and sold for $66,100. The owner, Bob Saxton, had acquired it during a stay in the Marshall Islands because he needed a watch for scuba diving. After 40 years of use, Bob decided to retire the watch by storing it in his desk drawer.

In 2010 he was selling some junk he had at home, including the Submariner, to get some change. Unaware of the prices that can reach today, he put it up for auction at the starting price of $9.95, mounting a stir among experts who doubted its authenticity.

The James Bond Submariner

In 1962, Sean Connery played James Bond for the first time in the film “Dr. No”. As in the Ian Fleming novels that inspired the films, on his wrist he wore a Rolex Submariner. Fleming himself was a user of this brand.

When Ian Fleming wrote his first book about James Bond in 1953, “Casino Royale”, he explained that his character “could not wear just any watch, it had to be a Rolex”. And not precisely because of its waterproofing but because James Bond had used the Sub as a brass knuckle, breaking it after stamping the word “Rolex” on the face of one of his enemies.

Rolex Submariner 6538
James Bond at the beginning of the film Goldfinger (1964), consulting his Rolex Submariner 6538.

In the film “Goldfinger”, third installment of the Bond saga in 1964, a close-up of 007’s Submariner can be seen. It is a model 6538, produced between 1955 and 1958.

The 6538 is easily recognizable by the oversized crown they had, without pyramidal protectors. This model already had the revolutionary Caliber 1030 movement and was waterproofed up to 200 meters (660ft).

Rolex Submariner 6538
In the following sequence from the film Goldfinger (1964), a close-up of the Rolex Submariner 6538 is seen.

The most striking feature is that the stainless steel bracelet had been replaced by a NATO military nylon strap 16mm thick. It probably was manufactured by “Phoenix Straps” in Wales, the main supplier of NATO straps to the British Army in the 1960s.

The two-ring NATO strap, had several stripes on a dark background that would correspond to the colors of the regiment to which James Bond, commander of the Royal Navy, belonged.

Rolex Submariner 6538
In the film Dr.No (1962), 007 wore the same Rolex Submariner 6538, as can be seen by the oversized crown, although without the NATO strap.

There is no consensus on the exact colors because the film was shot using the primitive cinematographic techniques of 1964 and the tones are not clearly visible. Some argue that it is a dark navy blue background with two military green stripes. Others see two thin red lines bordering the green stripes.

In the end what has transcended and what is sold today as a Bond NATO strap is what can be seen without looking too closely. A NATO strap with two gray stripes on a black background.

Rolex Submariner 6538
A modern interpretation of James Bond’s NATO strap.

Another feature of the Submariner that appears in “Goldfinger” is that the rotary bezel has no submarkers between the 0 and 15 minute indicators while on all modern Submariners there are. In the 6538 era, bezel inserts were mounted with both options.

Rolex Submariner 6538
NATO straps with black background and two gray stripes are called NATO BOND because for many years, they were the colors most similar to what was seen on the big screen. The Submariner pictured is a 1980s 14060 no-date. The most desirable Submariners are those without a date.

The explanation is that these two different scales on the bezel were used for two different styles of controlling dive times. In the middle of the 20th century, dives had to be rigorously planned to avoid accidents due to oxygen depletion or poorly made decompression stops.

The bezel without submarkers purpose was to use the watch as a stopwatch. Upon jumping into the water, the diver made the zero marker on the bezel coincide with the minute hand and thus knew how long he had been submerged.

The wheel with submarkers between zero and 15 minutes allows to use the watch as a “countdown” mode, especially handy when diving to depths that require decompression stops, upon resurfacing.

If the diver was to remain for example 45 minutes submerged, of which 15 had to be dedicated to decompression stops, then upon jumping into the water he would match the “30” marker on the bezel with the minute hand. When 30 minutes had elapsed, the minute hand would reach the 0-15 submarkers and the diver would begin to surface, making the decompression stops at the planned intervals.

Rolex Submariner 6538
The Submariner produced in the 2020s is the rolex Submariner 124060. There are date and no-date versions. The most desirable is the no-date, the most similar to 007’s Sub. The main differences with the original Submariners is that the case is 41mm versus the traditional 40mm. The crystal is artificial sapphire versus the old plexiglass. The bezel is ceramic instead of metallic. The luminous pigment is Chromalight with blue glow and the movement is Caliber 3230.

Currently, dives can be done without such rigorous planning because wrist computers are used that can even be connected to the oxygen cylinders, indicating the exact air remaining and automatically calculating decompression times.

The Rolex Submariner appeared in almost every installment of the Bond saga until Pierce Brosnan’s “Golden Eye” in 1995, in which the 007 production company signed a contract with Omega to promote Seamaster watches.

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